Bidder Reviews for Bonhams (376)

Could not be happier with a purchase. Excellent artwork, and the San Francisco staff of Bonhams is highly professional, helpful, and a pleasure to work with. They made special shipping arrangements in particular.

Do not buy with Bonhams!

A very good company, everything works perfectly.

Take caution when dealing with Bonhams, they are not the house of old. Won four items through their London office, and after several weeks finally received complete invoice, and when paid, the office refused to help in any way to deliver the very expensive watches. They still sit in England somewhere and I am out a few thousand dollars. Beware.

Be very careful increasing your bid-I discovered that by doing so I ended up bidding against myself, thereby paying double the amount the last competitive bidder against me. I cannot contact Bonhams about this error and to get it corrected.

100 % this was a scam from the start. Instead of putting an accurate description this auction carefully worded everything to scam the buyers. I have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars with live auctioneers but this will be my last purchase due to the amount of dishonesty here. I just had my item picked up by a good friend of mine who wasted 8 hours of his life to pick up junk. I highly doubt Gene Hackman displayed this item in his gameroom. I’m disgusted how dishonest this world has become to make a dollar. Good job hall succeeded at screwing me over. I’m definitely glad I didn’t fall for the over 3k shipping quote. This would have been an Almost 10k loss had I let y’all ship this piece if junk. Yall successfully helped live auctioneers lose a great customer

There was a 32 % buyer’s premium, I picked up my picture at a loading dock on a cafeteria sized table, unpackaged and was told that I may use the packing paper to wrap the picture. No tape, string or otherwise and don’t try to tell me that the 32 % buyer’s premium is used to defray online marketing costs, or any costs for that matter.

i do not think that i would buy from you again, if i can help it!

Great seller

Poor communications. No cohesive shipping program. Shipping charges outrageous. Never again with Bonhams.

Great service!!

I have purchased items from Skinner before their merger with Bonhams and was very satisfied. Now, at 32 % BP they are among the highest online, I bid knowing this, but what I didn’t know about was the $139 third party bidding fee they added on (including tax)! I had also called and requested proof of provenance which I never received. The representative I spoke with was very nice and the payment process was easy but no response or information. Their sales setup is made to maximize their profits at the expense of both buyers and sellers (from whom they also collect a premium). As a buyer I set my maximum bid lower to offset the high premium and effectively yielding a smaller return for the seller. I’ll think twice before buying again.

Be careful! I have bought plenty items from Liveauctioneer. But this one is very suspicious. I have never registered on the auction. Maybe I just clicked on this item. Somehow I won this garbage. Definitely I will avoid even click on their name.

Everything was beautifully done, from initial listing to detailed photos, smooth bidding and payment. Pay attention to Skinner's shipping and payment policies. Check the details. Their recommendations are good! A special shout out to UPS Store # 2651 for their services. You rocked it! Everyone involved was simply wonderful.

Since I trust Bonhams for accuracy and authenticity presentation, my only concern was shipping arrangements. Their site directed me to choose from a list, & The UPS store that I chose, was very attentive to my needs.

Dump robots and AI

These weird but wonderful prints are perfect additions to my collection.

I will not purchase from Bonhams in London ever again. It was photographed to hide restoration and none was noted. I spent thousands of dollars to acquire this wreck AND it took forever. BEWARE!

I was quite disappointed with the items I won at the recent auction. One of the knobkerries arrived with a significant deep split that was never mentioned in the description. Even more concerning, the photos provided were taken in such a way that the damage was completely hidden, which feels quite deceptive. As a buyer, I rely heavily on accurate descriptions and clear, honest imagery — especially when bidding remotely. This kind of omission undermines trust in the auction process. I expected a higher standard of transparency and disclosure. Unfortunately, I won’t feel confident participating in future auctions unless there’s a noticeable improvement in item descriptions and photographic integrity.

The purchase was two vintage bottles, sealed. I'm patient and typically forgiving, but the process with their recommended shipper was awful, taking a full month from invoice payment to UPS drop-off. Bonham's client services team was apologetic but didn't help me resolve my issue. Finally received the shipment today, and it appears that one of the two bottles has a bad cork. Calculated risk with 35 year old bottles, but just the icing on the cake with this transaction. If you're going to bid on spirits, either pick up in person or consider someone other than their house shipper.

Very good

Always professional

These were monumental brass sconces almost 4 feet tall and I was delighted to win with a bid of only $130. They were VERY heavy, a rather important fact that was missing from the description. The tiresome process of getting quotes from the recommended shipper list Bonhams provided started. (This is a part of the auction process I dislike) After getting quotes and selecting a shipper I was informed that even though this was a New York auction the actual item was located in California. I had to then request a list of CA shippers they recommend. If only they had provided the correct list of the California shippers in the first place. Once again I had to go through the unpleasant process of getting quotes and selecting a shipper. Bonhams was unapologetic and of no help here. Being really heavy (35 pounds EACH) these had to be crated for shipping and the whole shipping process cost more than 5 times my winning bid. There was some damage in shipping that had to be repaired and the wiring needed some work, but once they were finally hung they looked fantastic. They were installed in the historic Kresge Mansion in Detroit. The whole process however was a bit of an ordeal.

The initial shipping email i got had one shipper. Their price was 50 percent of what the hammer price was. So basically mu purchase including shipping and premium was almost double the hammer price. A very disappointing experience from such an esteemed auctioneer.

Great house to deal with